"I could sit with you for hours, I wouldn't be able to tell you the sufferings which we went through every minute of the day. And how, and how one survived this, it's really a miracle that anyone could survive...People were dying like flies. And finally on April 23rd in the morning, I was liberated by the Americans. I, at that time, I was in an American hospital for quite a few weeks. They told me that my weight was eighty-one pounds. At that time I was nineteen years old. Anyways, when I--no, I was twenty-one years old."-Saul Raimi (Raimi)
"We homosexuals were assembled into work detachments ... to work in the granite quarry.... The work of quarrying, dynamiting, hewing and dressing was extremely arduous, and only Jews and homosexuals were assigned to it.... Just like the prison camp itself, the granite quarry was completely surrounded by barbed wire, and guarded outside and inside by SS sentries. No prisoner was permitted to get closer than five meters to the wire. Anyone who did so was shot by the S.S. guards without warning, since this transgression was already considered as attempted escape. For shooting a prisoner who "attempted escape," an S.S. man received three days' special leave...One way of tormenting Jews and homosexuals that the S.S. in the quarry were very fond of was to drive crazy prisoners who were already physically at the end of their tether. A man who had not done anything in particular would have a metal bucket placed over his head. Two men held him down, while the S.S. men and Capos banged on the bucket with their sticks.The terrible noise amplified through the bucket soon brought the victim to such a pitch of terror that he completely lost his mind and his sense of balance was destroyed. Then the bucket was suddenly removed and he was pushed towards the wire fence. He could seldom right himself in time. And if he staggered inside the 5 meter zone, he was fired on in the usual way. "Games" such as these were a favorite pastime for some of the S.S.
guards."-Heinz Heger (Webb)
"Sunday...Sunday before noon we do the chores, so-called, you know. Clean out your lockers, clean out the barrack, clean up yourselves, and everything. Then we had inspection, you know. If you had button missing or something like that, you was punished for that, see. So, it was clean. That time from the beginning was clean, I must say...And then you work twelve hours a day. The food was...wasn't enough to survive no matter how strong you are for six months you know. The stronger people I saw, in six months they die."-Julian Noga (Noga)
"They took all of our things away, shaved our hair, and everyone received a dress and wooden clogs or other shoes. …Until I die I will never forget the feeling of the cold on my shaved head. Without hair -- that is a complete degradation for a woman. We were so many that the SS did not manage to tattoo all of us. …Still in October we were put on a transport toward Germany." -Hana L (Gill)
"I was liberated -- but I was not free. For the first time I was able to think beyond my hunger. For the first time I realized that now, at the age of 15, I was completely alone in the world. I no longer had any family, I had nothing. This is one of my memories of that day." -Jack Terry (Terry)
"First (I worked in) a stone quarry. But I was far too small and too weak to lift heavy stones. After two weeks I felt sure that I wouldn't survive. The skin on my fingers was in shreds and I could not touch anything anymore. Then I was taken to the Messerschmitt production facility"- Jack Terry (Terry)
"Filth - no water - two days without heat - no bath - no underwear. There was twenty-five lashes for stealing potato peelings. They called us the race gang, communists, cadets, soap-bags, criminals and Bolsheviks." -Karl Neusdadt (Flossenburg)
“They always assembled in groups of five, followed by the high SS marching by in their perfect uniforms. It was Dr. Mengele personally who sorted the people into those capable of work and prisoners destined for gassing. As we were both dressed in a good coat and an anorak, he signaled my cousin Vera and me to the right and my mother to the left, which meant to the gas. …My mother said in good German, 'Please, these are my children.' Mengele now also signaled my mother to the right. We did not suspect that to the right meant work and life and to the left meant gas and death." -H. Werke (Flossenburg)
"We homosexuals were assembled into work detachments ... to work in the granite quarry.... The work of quarrying, dynamiting, hewing and dressing was extremely arduous, and only Jews and homosexuals were assigned to it.... Just like the prison camp itself, the granite quarry was completely surrounded by barbed wire, and guarded outside and inside by SS sentries. No prisoner was permitted to get closer than five meters to the wire. Anyone who did so was shot by the S.S. guards without warning, since this transgression was already considered as attempted escape. For shooting a prisoner who "attempted escape," an S.S. man received three days' special leave...One way of tormenting Jews and homosexuals that the S.S. in the quarry were very fond of was to drive crazy prisoners who were already physically at the end of their tether. A man who had not done anything in particular would have a metal bucket placed over his head. Two men held him down, while the S.S. men and Capos banged on the bucket with their sticks.The terrible noise amplified through the bucket soon brought the victim to such a pitch of terror that he completely lost his mind and his sense of balance was destroyed. Then the bucket was suddenly removed and he was pushed towards the wire fence. He could seldom right himself in time. And if he staggered inside the 5 meter zone, he was fired on in the usual way. "Games" such as these were a favorite pastime for some of the S.S.
guards."-Heinz Heger (Webb)
"Sunday...Sunday before noon we do the chores, so-called, you know. Clean out your lockers, clean out the barrack, clean up yourselves, and everything. Then we had inspection, you know. If you had button missing or something like that, you was punished for that, see. So, it was clean. That time from the beginning was clean, I must say...And then you work twelve hours a day. The food was...wasn't enough to survive no matter how strong you are for six months you know. The stronger people I saw, in six months they die."-Julian Noga (Noga)
"They took all of our things away, shaved our hair, and everyone received a dress and wooden clogs or other shoes. …Until I die I will never forget the feeling of the cold on my shaved head. Without hair -- that is a complete degradation for a woman. We were so many that the SS did not manage to tattoo all of us. …Still in October we were put on a transport toward Germany." -Hana L (Gill)
"I was liberated -- but I was not free. For the first time I was able to think beyond my hunger. For the first time I realized that now, at the age of 15, I was completely alone in the world. I no longer had any family, I had nothing. This is one of my memories of that day." -Jack Terry (Terry)
"First (I worked in) a stone quarry. But I was far too small and too weak to lift heavy stones. After two weeks I felt sure that I wouldn't survive. The skin on my fingers was in shreds and I could not touch anything anymore. Then I was taken to the Messerschmitt production facility"- Jack Terry (Terry)
"Filth - no water - two days without heat - no bath - no underwear. There was twenty-five lashes for stealing potato peelings. They called us the race gang, communists, cadets, soap-bags, criminals and Bolsheviks." -Karl Neusdadt (Flossenburg)
“They always assembled in groups of five, followed by the high SS marching by in their perfect uniforms. It was Dr. Mengele personally who sorted the people into those capable of work and prisoners destined for gassing. As we were both dressed in a good coat and an anorak, he signaled my cousin Vera and me to the right and my mother to the left, which meant to the gas. …My mother said in good German, 'Please, these are my children.' Mengele now also signaled my mother to the right. We did not suspect that to the right meant work and life and to the left meant gas and death." -H. Werke (Flossenburg)